Greetings from England, Serbians of moddb! I have a little idea I'd like to put forward to you all, I'd appreciate your feedback and criticism, negative or positive.
I'll keep this brief as I can, as I don't feel like writing an essay :P
I'm very much into all things Russian, especially the military and police side of the country, weaponery etc I was working on a mod set in Russia which has sadly fallen apart now and I don't have the time or resources to fully realise it to it's full potential. But anyway, I have recently expanded on that interest to Russia's great friend in the Balkans, your country of Serbia. This is mainly down to looking at SRB-HawkEye-'s excellent Serbian military photos on several occasions, it hit me that Serbia has never really been represented in games apart from being the enemy (rolls eyes). So I thought something like a Post-apocalyptic game set in a ruined Belgrade would be a nice idea.
Does it sound like an idea that would be ok to go with? I've been doing some research on your country such as the different alphabet characters, vehicles, people and obviously weapons based on photos etc. With what I have so far thought up, some of the many Russian references I have could still be used. I also realised that Belgrade doesn't have a proper metro system apart from BG:VOZ, I saw the plan of the final system planned in 1976 and thought that if that were to be made then that would serve as a nice Metro 2033 like setting for some of the game.
I'm not trying to make a huge game here, so this would be a mod for Half-Life 1 (I refuse to use Source due to the masses of extra work needed and a very buggy SDK) I'd also use the open source code, from the modification "Paranoia" where you take the role as a member of Spetsgruppa alfa of the Russian FSB. I'm sure some of you have played it, but if not here's a link;
It has a lot of neat stuff already coded which would cut development time down significantly.
Everyone in the game would be Serbian and you would NOT be represented negatively or whatever bullshit stereotypes your country is depicted in Western media (so no utterly cliche crap like "Behind enemy lines"). I'm not here to offend anyone, I'm just a guy who wants to make a mod, I've been on here for awhile if you notice my profile, so I'm not the sort of person who would abuse this at all!
There would be different factions kind of like in Stalker and Metro 2033, so far I have ideas like this;
neutral faction (just trying to survive)
bandits (surviving criminal factions, either independant or organised, hostile)
mercenaries (work alone usually, either hostile or neutral depending on the situation)
The new yugoslav army (a group of the older generation with a nostalgic feel for the old times of the republic of Yugoslavia)
...and some others which I need to think up.. possibly some surviving members of ex-military and police forces (ptj, saj, hawks etc) maybe some kind of fanatical religious cult like the Monolith in STALKER (though I don't want to end up being a copy of that game).
In terms of real-life locations I'd include in the game would be the Belgrade Parliament building, The National Museum Of Serbia (with the statue of Prince Mihailo and most of republic square.), possibly the hotel Moscow because I have a great panoramic photograph of the street it's on.
SRB-HawkEye- has offered his help and backs my idea, but I do want to here from other Serbians too.
Please let me know what you think, I'm just really brainstorming ideas at the moment... I'd like to try something different because as much I am fascinated by Russia, mods set in the country have been many and I'd like to be a bit more original to try and stand out if at all possible..
Any questions you have, please don't hestitate to ask.
Thanks a lot my friends!
-D3ads-
Awesome idea, i had this idea like 5 years ago but as i am no modder i kept the it for myself. I would like for this to be a success, so you have my moral support as i can't give anything else :{
Well thanks a lot man! Maybe you could take some photos of some places or something if you wanted to help, entirely upto you!
Like Nihilus, i am not a modder or know anything how mods are made (and i am TRYING to finnish my mods that i started, hard work for a noob), but i can make some fotos of my place when i come back to serbia.
Fotos would be like some dark houses (places) where your gamecharacter would kill some bad guys or just find some unusual stuff for something etc. or some nice fotos from natur.
Well the museum inside might be doable but inside the Goverment building would be very taxing on performance, because it's a massive building! A modern engine could handle it, but not what I'm using. We'll see how it goes, at the moment I'm making the exterior of the National Theatre in Republic square :)
Love the idea
Well that's enough for me, I'll assume those that haven't posted don't really have an opinion of it, so I guess I'll crack on with this properly =)
idea = good...
making the idea become reality = hard work
Well I know, that's why I'm not making a huge mod on a new engine, I have experience enough to know what I'm doing hopefully! Thanks for the support =)
So basically metro 2035?
In a way yes.. but also no because although there is a metro.. it is only a part of the game, you'll see much less tunnels than in Metro 2033.. I promise lol. If you had to compare it to an existing title then I would say STALKER as much as I wouldn't want people to pigeonhole my idea because it has AKs and is set in Eastern Europe.
Belgrade is a no-go zone for most people.. but further out some people have survived the fallout and outposts are setup in villages and abandoned areas...
I need to write up a full document for this but for now I'm just throwing stuff together to see how this will work...
Quite an interesting idea, also I'm glad that there's at least someone not having the same view on us as the west. I haven't modeled in quite some time, will have to pick it up again. ;)
D3ads you have my support as well all serbians are whit you :)
Thanks, it means a lot to have the support of the Serbian people, your views are important to me!